Chapter Three
Chapter Three: The Good Fight :In which our heroes see a Falling Body, gamble dangerously, rub elbows with the rich and powerful and learn that not all monsters are inhuman. What the Bloody Hell Just Happened?! One Trouble Ahead finds a body, slightly bloodied and broken, lying on their porch. No signs or signals can be found that let them know how the body got there. An argument ensues over what will happen now, and if blame will be assigned. The body is ID-ed as David Picket-Frost, Summer Courtier. The House itself calls to let the young people know it moved the body from the flowerbed to the porch, and that it fell from the sky. After shoving the body into the icebox, the Motley splits up to investigate. Two Perth and Oliver visit Perth’s mentor, Baron Amyas Crayle. The Baron Crayle explains the differences between the Upper, Deep, and Baseline Hedge, implying that a body could be dumped from the sky and land just about anywhere. Three Percy goes to visit his own mentor, Joshua Wolff. Wolff already knows of Frost's death, and lets him know that since Spring is pretty lassiez-faire with . . . everything, the onus of investigation falls on the Motley. He recommends that you all sign a statement saying he was killed near your hollow by a hedge-beast. He has blood under his fingernails. Four Nellie and Gram follow a keycard to the Soho Grand Hotel, finding a room for David Picket-Frost that has been severely messed up. Magical casino chips are found. Percy joins and guards/valets at the hotel become suspicious. Mr. Picket-Frost is apparently known to the staff. Oliver and Perth join just before a speedy escape becomes necessary. Five The Motley heads a few blocks away to the Soho Squash club, where Frost was a member. They meetLord Henry Blackmund, a friend of both Mr. Frost and Sir Beryl Whitehall. Blackmund lost, £5,000 to Frost very recently. Sir Beryl, after beating a mortal of high status fairly badly, is also aware of Frost’s death recommends you contact The Man for All Seasons, the keeper of the Charter of the Land. A Nike gym bag containing £30,000 is also found. Six A trip back to the hollow for some lunch ends with hiding most of the money under Percy’s bed, along with each member taking an additional £1,000 for yourselves. Seven The Motley meets the Man for all Seasons, the keeper of the Charter of the Land. He, horrifyingly, seems to be completely mortal (or perhaps not). His assistant, a snotty little blue man, watches with disdain and seems to have some unknown grudge against Gram. The Man for all Seasons returns to inform the group that Picket-Frost died of exsanguination (his blood was drained). The Man demands that Trouble Ahead informs the “Underlondoners” of the problem so they can “get the Vampires back in line.” In addition, they must return Mr. Picket-Frost’s body to “The mausoleum" for burial. Questions as to where the Underlonders can be found results in a name: The Jade Warren. Eight After some quick investigative work, Trouble Ahead heads to the Warren of Jade, a secret casino hidden in a Chinese restaurant. Here they meet Governor Feng, ratlike leader of the Warren, and Mr. Cole, a pitch-black, rotting citizen of Underlondon. Nine After attempting to cash David Picket-Frost’s chips, the group is saddled with his debt (£60,000). It is revealed that Mr. Picket-Frost had a bit of a gambling addiction and would indulge it at another, far higher-stakes location. An address is given far in East London, nearly to the M25. Ten They return home to find Mr. Black, the Prince of Spring, and the Duke of Mistletoe waiting for them to give them Mr. Picket-Frost’s body. They will then escort it to the Mausoleum. Eleven Trouble Ahead arrive at the location given to them to find Lord Henry and Sir Beryl waiting. Small factory rooms are filled with a wide-range of mortals and Changelings beating the snot out of each other. Lord Henry seems to know their true nature and calls Nellie out on lying to him earlier. Twelve Welcome to the Ashwood Abbey! Percy and Gram agree to fight a Nihil for a large cash prize. A creepy old lady makes a bet with Oliver. A vampire gets dusted, and Gram and Percy nearly bleed to death fighting the monstrous blackness that the Abbey caught. If not for some underhanded cheating from Perth and obvious cheating from Nellie and Oliver, they would have died. Sir Beryl warns not to speak of the Changelings working with the Abbey and agrees to deal with Governor Feng so long as they give Lord Henry back his duffel bag full of cash. Thirteen Percy and Gram are rushed to the school infirmary where Ben Ashmore apparently works. He has called in a number of favors to get the Queen of Spring there to help him heal. They are advised to rest the day, because the next day will be the memorial service for David Picket-Frost. Fourteen DP-F is laid to rest in Hollow know as the Mausoleum (hidden carefully in the National Gallery). After the queen makes a "lovely" speech, she quickly departs, leaving only your lovely motley, Mr. Black, and Rodger West, a very intoxicated summer courtier and former Lost Boy. He indicates that he was fighting the Nihil when Picket-Frost committed suicide-by-monster. He blames the King of Summer for the death, saying that after '97 there are no fights left to fight and the soldiers of Summer are getting restless. He drunkenly slurs that Picket-Frost's last words were something along the lines of “It doesn’t matter anymore. Nothing matters anymore.” After he stumbles out, Mr. Black follows. Fifteen Trouble Ahead explores the galleries of the seasons: *The Green Door -- A short stone hallway covered in moss leads to a pleasant outdoor Grecian garden on a warm twilight afternoon. Six pillars around by a small pond and waterfall bear the portraits of the six kings and queens of Spring, including the most recent: Victoria the Great and Edane the Young. *The Red Door -- A long corridor with wood paneling and red carpeting. The skylights burn in the noonday sun, as at least two dozen portraits, large and small dot the walls at odd intervals, ending with a large portrait of King George V, The Dragon, current king of Summer. *The Purple Door -- A small windowless room with purple velvet flower wallpapers. It is lit by gas lamps on either side of the six portraits of the kings and queens of Autumn. The faces of each king and queen but the most recent have been burnt out into a charred blackened mess. The most recent portrait, Queen Mary Bloodletter, has been hammered into the wall and has left cracks in the wall where the nails lie, unlike the rest that appear to hang naturally. In addition, the dates on the previous portrait, King Henry, have been scratched in rather then appear as part of the tiny plaque like the rest. *The Blue Door -- A near opposite of the Summer hall, but at midnight. Each of the dozens of frames on the walls lies empty and covered in a layer of cellophane to protect from dust. One enormous portrait stands at the end of the hall -- that of King Albert Balmoral. Beneath his name lies the dates of his reign: 1940 to present. A small set of stairs head down to a smaller room, coated in dust. A smaller portrait done in the same style has a plaque that reads “Eleanor of Winter, 1940-1940”. A sad voice behind the group asks if it can be of service and is revealed to be King Albert. When they ask why he is there, he responds that he is there to clean. He asks to be alone, and Trouble Ahead quietly leaves. Sixteen Party Time! Trouble Ahead cuts rugs and hits on various members of the Spring and Summer courts. Perth gets an in with the bouncers and a much better job because of it. In the end, Percy goes home with Donna Nobel, Baroness of Music, Nellie gets a date with the King of Summer, and Gram gets the big fish: a night in with the Queen of Spring. The King of Summer notes she has to marry eventually. . . . Seventeen Just as Oliver is lying down to bed, the phone in the house rings. The House found a package in the yard from the “accident”. Oliver goes to the library to open it and finds photos of the current royals with the number 111 written all over them. They seem to show the royals meeting with various supernatural beings, including The Creature, vampires, and observing a formation of Blackmasks. The World-Famous London Daily Mirror For other articles see- London Daily Mirror ''Ashwood Abbey Raises Thousands for Juvenile Diabetes'' A menagerie of mischievous masters of monetary multiplication came together last night for a fun-filled night of gambling and charity. Sponsored by noted philanthropist Lord Henry Blackmund held his 4th annual “cards for the cure” event at the Ashwood Abbey estate in East London. Members of the super secretive opened their doors to the Brampton research hospital raising over 200,000 pounds for the noted organization. The abbey continues to take criticism from non-governmental organizations for keeping there membership rolls totally secret and barring media from all of there events. Rumor states that the BBC has an off-book policy to not report on the club, a policy only applying to the best of the best including royals, captains of industry and exclusive gents clubs like the Abbey, Boodles and the Eccentric. (MORE CHARITY ON PAGE 12) Questions For other questions see- The Master Question List *Why did David Picket-Frost simply walk in into that cage? What did he mean when he said that it "doesn’t matter"? *How did Lord Henry Blackmund discover the world of the Lost? Why hasn’t the empire moved against him? *Why is Beryl so desperate to keep the nature of the Summer courts relationship with The Ashwood Abbey a secret? Does he really believe that it acts as a “pressure valve” for summer? *Vampires? Seriously? Like Count Dracula Vampires? Or like Dr. Collins fake vampires? *Where is Underlondon? Is that why you’re not allowed to enter the hedge underground? *What the living *&%# is the Nihil?! *Is the Autumn Portrait Gallery actively attempting to reject Queen Mary’s picture? What did she do to become queen exactly? *Where did those pictures in the box come from? Why did Beryl dump the body with a box of incriminating photographs? What does “111” mean? Category:Book One